God?s Own Country will no doubt be compared to Brokeback Mountain. The easy comparison crossed my mind as I watched the screener for this film. But the dynamics of this relationship bring an entirely different feel to this love story. Johnny Saxby (Josh O?Connor) is...
Raw emotion is the driving force in the documentary The Work. In California?s Folsom State Prison, some of the inmates take part in group therapy to try to rehabilitate themselves. Twice a year, people from outside the prison come to take part in a four-day intensive...
I recently had the chance to take part in some round table interviews with some of those involved in The Florida Project. There were three separate interviews: Willem Dafoe, Bria Vinaite with Broolynn Prince, and director Sean Baker. The film deals with a child...
Blue: ?Your childhood. . .? Billy: ?. . .Was wonderful. Growing up was hard.? In a time when people were famous just for being famous, a young boy?s father writes a book with him as a character. Soon, the whole world wants to know and meet the ?real? Christopher...
In Blood Stripe, a Marine sergeant (known only as Our Sergeant) returns from her latest deployment to start civilian life. She has a difficult time fitting in with family and friends. She finds much of her daily life meaningless. She is unable to sleep. She has...
The Meyerowitz family has spent their lives talking past each other. How can they find ways to say the important things that must be said? Noah Baumbach?s The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) is a comic, yet painful look at a family that must struggle to get past...
The Florida Project is the story of a carefree childhood summer?except it isn?t. Instead it is a haunting view of a somewhat hidden section of American life?families that are not quite homeless, but nowhere near even a minimal security. The story, which is made up of...
After ten years as part of the Batsheva Dance Company in Israel, Bobbi Jene Smith is returning to the U.S. to create her own avant garde works. Elvira Lind?s documentary Bobbi Jene chronicles her two year journey, her work, and the personal struggles it entails. The...
Twenty years ago Judi Dench played Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown, the story of Victoria?s close relationship with John Brown, a member of her household staff. Victoria and Abdul sees her again in the roll of Victoria as the now elderly Queen strikes up another personal...